Unlivin' on the Edge
by aikakone
Summary: Henry Morgan just can't catch a break. He goes to Boston for a medical examiners conference, meets an expert on the American Revolution while he's out in a club with Lucas, and reappears in the Charles River the next morning not knowing how he got there. Now if Henry could only figure out how he died this time...


The Charles River isn't like the East River. It has different current, different salinity, different levels of pollution. It also doesn't usually have a naked immortal bobbing in it like a buoy.

Henry Morgan hadn't spent much time in Boston, but when he and Lucas had gone there for their medical examiners conference, he wasn't planning on adding it to his long list of Cities-I've-Died-In. Boston and the Charles River just weren't supposed to be part of his Kicked-the-Bucket List. Yet there he was in the river after a night out with Lucas who let his freak flag fly, shimmy and shake. Lucas's freak flag could do things Henry Morgan wasn't sure were humanly possible.

The thing is, he just wasn't sure how he'd died this time. It was anecdotally true that people got forgetful in old age, but he was an immortal. That sort of circumvented the normal progression of aging, didn't it?

He paddled toward the shore as he tried to think of what had happened to him. At the club he'd seen a tall, dark-haired man with a cleft chin. They both ended up talking about turn of the 19th Century weapons. When Henry asked him about how he had learned everything so thoroughly, the man said he participated in a historical reenactment group that specialized in the Revolutionary War. That was probably quite common in and around Boston, though Henry had never thought much of it before.

Henry stepped out to shore in the dark of the morning. The moon that had been full that night had gone down completely, and the sun hadn't risen yet. He was already shivering and wincing as he tried to pick his way along the path into a park.

A bush near Henry started rustling, and then a shaggy brown head popped up from it. He looked around disoriented until he saw Henry. Then the man let out a screech. He stood up with the bush between them protecting his modesty, too, since it was quite obvious even in the full dark that he was also naked as the day he was born.

In the quiet dance of mostly-straight naked men everywhere, Henry nodded at the other man, and he nodded back. Then the man started talking to fill the awkward silence, thereby creating even more awkward noise.

"I'm not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. My sister's gay. Well, a lesbian because she's my sister. But I'm not gay," the young man said as he fidgeted nervously.

Henry sighed to himself. Well, yes, there was that assumption, wasn't there? As two men both naked in a public place, they could have been trying for an interesting hook up. Except Henry didn't usually try doing that right after he'd died. Before sometimes. Sex had been the direct precursor to an interesting death or two, not that he'd ever tell Abe about it at all. There were some things too private to share.

"Do you have any clothes?" Henry asked hopefully.

The younger man looked dubiously around as if to ask why he'd have a stash of clothing in a public park. Then he said, "I can get you some scrubs, but we'd have to go to the hospital."

Since Henry had to go there anyway, that perked him up. Maybe he could call Lucas at the hotel and ask him to bring a change of clothes for him. He'd even let him wear his new scarf that Lucas had been staring lustfully at most of the trip to Boston. He just had to make Lucas promise to not ask questions.

"Yes, please. I could reimburse you later," Henry offered with gentlemanly manners. Then Henry couldn't stop talking and over-sharing. "I have a bad habit of naked sleepwalking."

"That must be embarrassing," the young man said to Henry as they both walked rather nakedly to the hospital.

"I have friends on the police force. Embarrassing is a delicate term for it," Henry said, and he almost volunteered about the betting pool that some of the officers still had with each other.

"Here in Boston?" the man asked him conversationally.

"No, New York," Henry said.

"That must have been one long walk," he replied before they both got very quiet on the approach to the hospital. Henry barely had time to give him one of his looks, the kind of look that he usually saved for Lucas.

* * *

Sneaking into the hospital, Josh ducked at all the right places and then got into the staff locker room where he took out a set of scrubs from his locker to give to his unknown companion. Then he let himself into Aidan's locker to borrow one of his sets of scrubs for himself. The vampire would get over it.

"You work here," the stranger said as a statement of the obvious.

"I do," Josh said but didn't go into the nurse, doctor, orderly continuum of care and his place in it.

"I'm a doctor," the no-longer-naked stranger said softly. "It's been a long time since I've worked in a hospital."

Josh frowned at the oddity of his statement. "Did you lose your medical license or leave your practice?"

"No," the man said with a disarming laugh. "I work as a medical examiner now. My job is death, death and more death."

A fact started nibbling on the edges of Josh's consciousness, and then he remembered. "Are you here for the conference?"

Smiling back at him, the man said, "Yes, I am. And now I must call my hotel to ask my colleague to bring me my own clothes. Do you have a phone I can use?"

"No, but I can find one," Josh said, taking the sleepwalking doctor to the staff lounge.

* * *

Lucas was a bouncing bundle as he brought Henry his clothes at the hospital later. He took advantage of wearing the scarf, and he teased Henry about letting his own freak flag fly at the club. Henry nodded with the normal amount of professional disdain as he got dressed, but he didn't tell Lucas what happened no matter how many hints the man dropped.

"So how did you get those scrubs? Did you hook up with a hot nurse?" Lucas asked.

Surely the good doctor Morgan didn't mind a pretty nurse. He vaguely remembered mention of an ex-wife or some previous girlfriend who was a nurse.

"It was the kindness of strangers," Henry said.

Knowing he had come up against the brick wall for now, Lucas said, "At least you weren't arrested."

Henry agreed with him and snapped his waistcoat in a sign that he felt presentable as a respectable medical examiner should be. Lucas, on the other hand, wore his normal work attire, which was much less formal and a whole lot more comfortable. Different strokes for different folks.

Henry stuffed the scrubs into his bag and muttered something about getting them cleaned before he gave them back. It was a nice gesture, and Lucas wondered if that was an example of his proper British manners. Less politely, he took the scarf off Lucas's neck and then prodded him to lead the way up to the conference location.

* * *

When Josh saw Aidan again, he was acting strange, even for Aidan. He was giggling to himself like a happy blood drunk, and Josh was suspicious. "Did you go off the blood bags and feed from a person? Who did you bite last night?"

Laughing again, Aidan said, "I don't know who he was, but he was delicious. I would love to find him again and have more."

Aidan groaned with his remembered pleasure, and Josh felt vaguely perturbed. Yes, they were monsters, but did they have to enjoy it so much sometimes?

"Why? Why would you do that? You have to be careful, Aidan," Josh chastised.

Aidan let go of his dreamy expression and focused again on Josh, taking special notice of the scrubs he was wearing, which were clearly not his own. Josh and Aidan had completely different body shapes, and the fact that Aidan's name was on them gave a big clue.

"Why are you wearing my scrubs?" he asked, slipping into his wise and serious mode that he sometimes affected as an older vampire.

"While you were eating," Josh said pointedly, "I woke up next to a naked doctor. Sort of."

Aidan looked at him with disbelief, and Sally used that as the perfect time to make her entrance because nothing was complete in Josh's life if he couldn't have his humiliation witnessed by his two best friends.

"This is just the sort of thing I like to overhear," Sally said as she materialized beside Aidan to regard Josh.

Josh narrowed his eyes and mouth at her before saying, "Sometimes I really hate that you can leave the house now."

"Good morning to you, too," she replied, taunting him with her ghostly smile. "Wake up on the wrong side of the full moon this morning?"

"Well, it's a little disorienting to wake up next to a naked dude," Josh hissed. "If I were gay, okay. Emily and I could sit around and bond over how gay both we are. But I'm not! So it wasn't one of my finer moments."

"Touchy," Sally said with a hands-off gesture.

Aidan stopped the conversation there before it bantered on endlessly. "You weren't locked up as you normally are on the full moon? Where were you?"

Josh looked uncomfortable. "I couldn't get to my cell fast enough. There was a last minute problem I didn't know about, so I locked myself in this little shed in an out of the way park no one uses. I was locked inside, and then stumbled out near some bushes in the morning. I promise I'll check for animal attacks later just in case I missed something."

"Good enough for now," Sally said. Then with all the enthusiasm of a ghost who has missed too much gossip, she asked, "Aidan, tell us about Mr. Delicious."

Aidan licked his lips like he could still taste the blood. "We talked about firearms. He had this accent, from Wales maybe. Then we talked about death and exsanguination. He was really into it."

"Sounds like your kind of date," Josh said as he wrinkled his nose.

"So you drank from him, and now you're having your blissful afterglow." Sally asked quietly, "Did you kill him, Aidan?"

"No!" Aidan protested. "I don't think so. I just had a taste. A delicious taste."

"Well, you're acting like you're blood drunk," Sally said sternly, and Josh nodded quickly at her statement.

"Well, I'm not," Aidan replied and then tried to change the subject. "So tell us about your doctor, Josh."

He gave Aidan an odd look. Then Josh described the doctor he'd met by the banks of the river and asked Aidan, "Did he look like that?"

Aidan had stopped making his yummy face and thought about it. "Come to think of it, that does sound like him."

"Not dead," Josh told Sally with relief. Then contemplatively, he added, "I think Aidan's Mr. Delicious was my Dr. Naked."

"Doctor Naked," Sally said with an impressed look on her ghostly face. "He gets around. I think I need to see this man."

Looking smug and pointing, Josh said, "He's at the medical examiners conference upstairs. That's the reason he wasn't bothered by creepy topics like exsanguination."

"You mean he doesn't have a boner for pale Revolutionary War vampires?" Sally asked, rather enjoying Aidan's discomfort.

Aidan glared at her. Then he told Josh, "I want to go upstairs and see him. Make sure it really is him."

"Me, too!" Sally said.

"Are you hoping to get another drink?" Josh asked him.

"If the situation presents itself…" Aidan said. Then to Sally he reaffirmed, "He really was that delicious."

"Does blood really taste that different?" she asked.

"Sometimes it does," Aidan admitted. "Let's go!"

Josh walked ahead of them so he could keep his mind off their chatter. He just had to walk past any administrators who might want to get him momentarily off his task.

* * *

The trio of roommates crowded into the back of the lecture room where medical examiners and their assistants from all over New England were doing their professional development. While the topic might have been interesting to the men and women involved, Josh was on the lookout for only one person-Dr. Naked and Delicious. After scanning the crowd, he finally found the man in very refined clothes sitting near the front like an eager student.

"There he is," Josh pronounced.

"Oh, he's handsome," Sally gushed as she caught sight of him. "You have good taste, Aidan."

"That's literal taste, Sally. I wasn't trying to pick him up," Aidan said.

"Uh-huh," she dismissed. "Hey, Josh. He's got a friend who looks a little like you."

The trio focused on the man beside the doctor who did have a similar look to Josh. He was taller and skinnier, but it was a match if you squinted. The man seemed to be happy as a clam as he chatted with the doctor who looked as if he was still trying to win the good student prize of the conference.

The doctor's companion stopped talking and then took a look around the room, eventually focusing on the two corporeal beings standing and staring at them from the doorway. He started swatting the doctor's arm to get his attention.

The man, clearly disgruntled by his coworker, finally turned around to give Josh and Aidan a look that in profane circles was usually interpreted as, "Oh, shit."

Sally impishly finger waved at him once he was looking in their direction. "He really does have a handsome face if you're in to that kind of thing."

Henry shocked all three of them by finger waving back to Sally.

"Can he see me?" she asked her friends with a ghostly affectation of a gasp.

"Yep," Aidan said with his own controlled panic.

"What is he?" Sally demanded. "Who did you eat last night?"

"Maybe he's a medium. I guess that could be handy if you're a medical examiner," Josh offered.

"He's not a vampire or a werewolf," Aidan said. "I would have known that right away. I thought he was a human. A really tasty human, but a human nonetheless. And now I have no idea."

The three were silent, watching the doctor, who had turned back to face front, and his scruffy coworker.

"We should meet him," Sally said, voicing the id of the trio in this moment.

"They will have lunch soon," Aidan said as he pointed to the daily schedule posted near the door.

Feebly going along with his friends, Josh added, "He does have my scrubs."

"Sounds like a lunch date, Josh," Sally said.

"Why me?" he asked. Then he shut up. He knew why. He was the only one who could actually eat.

* * *

Henry recognized the dark haired man staring at him from the back of the room. He had no immediate clue about why the three people would be studying him so closely. He hoped the man hadn't seen him die. That would go with the embarrassment of the other man seeing him post resurrection.

The woman was odd, and he couldn't immediately figure out why she was there. She had a vaguely misty look about her, and her clothes had the comfortable material that made him think that she was a patient on a longer stay. She knew the men, though. Their body language was too familiar with each other for her to be a random patient walking the hallways of the hospital.

"Who were they?" Lucas asked as he nudged Henry.

"The man on the left let me use his scrubs. I think the man on the right was the one I talked to last night in the club," Henry said in his most clinical voice.

"Good taste," Lucas commented, earning a double take from Henry. "Hey, I don't judge. What happens in Boston stays in Boston."

Moving on with his narrative, Henry said, "The woman seemed surprised when I waved at her. I wonder if she is here for psychiatric care."

"What woman? Did you meet someone else at the club last night?" Lucas asked with interest. Softer and dirtier, he added, "A freaky ménage à trois?"

"No!" Henry said with mild annoyance. Even if there had been such a thing, he would not talk about his sexual exploits with Lucas. "She was with the two men just now."

"Whatever you say, Doc," Lucas said. "But I didn't see her. She might not be the only one in need of psychiatric care."

"Yes, I've often wondered that about you," Henry teased by turning Lucas's own joke around.

A few seconds passed, and the fact that Lucas had not seen her bothered him, so he asked, "Are you sure you didn't see her? She looked in her twenties, dark hair with a nice smile. Indian, maybe. She had a typical nose…"

"Don't be racist, Henry. We say Native American," Lucas said, earning the patented Henry Morgan eye roll.

Honestly! Sometimes Henry wondered if the man did it on purpose just to get a reaction out of him. Judging from the way his lips twitched, that was probably exactly what happened.

* * *

At the lunch break all the people in the room scrambled for food. It was one rule of most workplaces that if there was free food, people would be grazing on it until it was gone. Henry picked at the meager offerings. This time it was finger sandwiches, individual bags of potato chips, chopped vegetables and individual carbonated beverages or bottled water.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dark haired man he met this morning just after dawn.

"I keep running into you," he said in acknowledgement.

"Good buffet?" he asked as a conversation restarter.

"Not really," Henry said. "Did you come to ask me about the food or something else?"

"Yes, this will seem a little odd considering how we met this morning," he said, swallowing hard at that moment.

"How did you two meet, Henry?" Lucas asked as he let himself into the conversation.

"Henry? Your name is Henry?" the other man said, looking visibly relieved to put a name on the man.

"Dr. Henry Morgan. This is my colleague, Lucas Wahl," he said.

"And you are?" Lucas asked.

"Josh. My name's Josh. So, Henry, I was thinking," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair in nervous affectation, "would you like to come over for supper? I know it's rather unusual, but I could show you some Boston hospitality. If you were into that sort of thing."

Lucas gave Henry and Josh interested looks, but Henry hesitated. Josh was up to something peculiar, and it was beyond the normal level of nervousness he was showing right now.

"That is entirely not necessary," Henry said.

"It wouldn't be true hospitality if we did it because it was necessary," Josh reasoned.

"He's right, Henry," Lucas said. "Who is 'we?'"

"Oh, my roommate Aidan was interested when I told him I met one of the medical examiners. He is considering becoming one of them. He has a real interest in the dead," Josh said.

"I could tell him all about it," Lucas volunteered self-importantly.

"And you will," Henry said. "If I accept your interesting offer, my colleague must come with me."

Lucas visibly preened. Henry tried to keep his own reactions under control. He wanted Lucas with him for safety in numbers. Something about Josh was off, but Henry was curious enough to try to find out what he wanted from them.

"Of course, no problem!" Josh was quick to say. "Here, I'll give you our address. Come at seven."

"Should I bring a bottle of wine?" Henry asked politely.

Josh froze and gave him an unexpectedly touched look. "Thank you! Most people don't even think to ask. My best friends don't enjoy my cooking or understand such things."

"You'll find I have a very cultured palate," Henry said.

Pointing at him and nodding, Lucas confirmed, "He does."

"Well, this will be good. See you then," he said with a head nod as he backed out of the room where the rest of the medical examiners were still grazing on the corpses of sandwiches.

* * *

Henry fussed with the bottle in his hand as he stood on the stoop of the brownstone. There was something about the house that had presence. It was enough to quiet Lucas who had been talkative on the trip over.

The man who met him at the door was the pale good-looking one from the hospital that Henry had seen talking to Josh. Seeing him in the light didn't make the good doctor any more sure that the man was the same one from the club last night.

"Come in," he said as he came to himself. "My name is Aidan."

"Is this your house?" Lucas asked.

"I share it with my roommate Josh," he said graciously.

"I wish I could have something this nice," Lucas muttered to himself.

"It comes with its own quirks," Aidan said.

"Like a ghost?" Lucas asked, and Henry shot him an annoyed look.

"What? It could have a ghost. That's the only reason I'd be able to afford something this nice even with roommates," Lucas said even though Henry thought it was crass to talk about money.

"He doesn't know how true that is," a woman's voice said with mordant affectation.

Henry startled and turned in her direction, "You!"

"Me?" Aidan asked, covering for the woman who was standing beside him.

"I'm sorry. It was too much talk of ghosts. I'm Henry, and this is Lucas. He rather enjoys frights," he explained.

"I do," Lucas said proudly. "I've made student films with vampires and werewolves."

"Do you believe those things are real?" Aidan asked as he closed the door behind them.

"I like to believe they are good metaphors for the human condition," Lucas said, and Aidan nodded at that.

Though she had been beside Aidan, the female figure disappeared. Henry screwed up his face in consternation, but this time he didn't say anything. He knew he had seen her, and he was tempted to ask Aidan what her name was. Lucas hadn't noticed her, and Aidan hadn't acknowledged her, either. Henry rubbed his forehead and wondered if he was seeing things. Then he realized he still held the wine bottle in his hands.

"I brought this," he said.

Turning the label over, Aidan said, "Thank you. Josh will love this. I'll bring it to the kitchen to chill."

When he left, Lucas stood in the room with his fingers making right angles in the air in the way of wannabe auteurs imagining their films. "This would be a great place for a werewolf dance party."

The cook of the hour strode out from the kitchen wearing an apron to protect his clothes, and he had oven mitts on for his hands.

"You think so?" Josh asked Lucas, his voice becoming oddly squeaky. "What made you think of werewolves?"

"There's something gothic about this house. I love it," Lucas said.

Henry was oddly quiet, and he appreciated his companion's patter with the other two men. He was still thinking of how familiar Aidan looked and what they could have talked about last night. So much of his recollection was fuzzy, and he hated that he didn't know how he'd died.

He almost always remembered how he died. Unfortunately. If he could choose to forget things, those might be what he picked since death was always painful. There was never any gentle into his good night for him. Never. Now that he couldn't remember how he'd died, it was truly disconcerting for Henry.

Josh rushed back into the kitchen and brought out a plate full of hors d'oeuvres. He was smiling brightly and telling Lucas all about what was in them. For his part, Lucas was as happy as a clam as he ate them.

"You have to try these, doc! This man is a genius in the kitchen," Lucas enthused.

Josh preened and acted to Henry's eyes like he had just met his newest best friend in Lucas. Aidan didn't look like he was trying out the appetizers, though, and Henry scrutinized them.

"Oh, I have allergies," Aidan said. "He made these just for you. There's nothing harmful in them."

"Nothing but good healthy ingredients," Josh said as he took a taste of one of his creations. "Maybe more turmeric next time."

With his mouth full, Lucas said, "No. They're perfect the way they are."

Widening his eyes in lieu of a full eye roll, Henry took one of the finger foods and found it unexpectedly delightful. "My son would love this recipe!"

Lucas coughed. "You have a son, doc? I didn't know you had a son. Why didn't you tell me? Who's your son?"

It was Henry's turn to get caught out. "I'm sorry. I misspoke. Abe thinks of me as a son. He would love this recipe. I got tongue-tied because this tastes so good."

Henry stuffed two more of Josh's mystery creation in his mouth for good measure so Lucas wouldn't follow up with another question. He mentally kicked himself for almost letting that one slip.

The double dose of appetizers was too much for the man, and he coughed until tears came to his eyes. Josh, being a good host and seeing his distress, pointed him to the bathroom if he needed it. Henry nodded his thanks as he coughed into his hands and escaped to the bathroom.

* * *

As Henry stood at the sink basin washing his hands after his coughing fit, he thought of how odd the two roommates were. There was just something off about them that he couldn't put his finger on, and he normally had brilliant deduction skills. It annoyed him that he hadn't figured out the mystery yet.

Henry sighed and shook his head and lifted his eyes to stare at his reflection in the glass.

"Boo!" the woman said, making Henry startle and shake from head to toe.

"I have got to say, that sometimes you have to go with the classics," she said, an indulgent laugh in her voice.

With extremely slow caution, Henry asked, "How did you get in here?"

"You really can see me, can't you?" she asked, looking delighted. "Are you a medium?"

"No," he said, still a little unsettled by her sudden appearance. "Are you a… ghost? You think you're dead?"

"I don't think I'm dead," she said, "I really am dead. I died on the stair landing in this house. My name's Sally Malik."

"Henry Morgan. Forgive me if I don't shake your hand," he said.

Chuckling to herself, Sally said, "I like you Henry. But why can you see me? You're not a werewolf or vampire. Josh and Aidan would have been able figure that out right away."

"Werewolves? Vampires?" he asked with a slight head tilt. This was definitely getting closer to Lucas's area of pop culture references and consisted of two things he didn't know about for any real certainty. There were the cases of people with porphyria, but Henry as a man of medicine didn't believe in true vampirism.

Death was one thing Henry did know, though. He knew it as an intimate friend for how often he'd died himself and all the people who came across his table in the medical examiner's office.

Using his kindest voice, he asked, "How did you die, Sally?"

She looked at him oddly. The creatures who could see her didn't usually care to ask about it. Even sensitive people didn't. "I was pushed down the stairs."

"Head trauma or asphyxiation?" he asked.

The ghost looked sad. "There is still a dent in the landing where my head struck the floor. I don't know if it was one or the other."

"No," Henry said in thinking mode. "You could have had hemorrhaging on the brain or slow suffocation. I am so sorry, Sally. I have died both ways, and it is never easy."

"Excuse me? You've died? What are you, a zombie?" she demanded.

"No," Henry said. "I am not a zombie. There is a real affliction in the medical literature…"

Sally waved off his potential lecture. "Why are you special, Henry Morgan? You can see me, and my vampire friend thinks you taste delicious."

"Vampire friend?" he asked, surprised more than he should have been that she went back to that fact.

"Tall, dark and fangy on a liquid diet," she said.

"He said he had allergies," Henry said.

"Yes. Sunlight and foods that aren't blood," Sally said.

Henry sighed at her. She was definitely a puzzle. Perhaps his first impression of her that she was a mental patient was right. He could ask her more questions about her death. He gave her his thinking look, and she predicted him.

"When you leave this bathroom, go stand near the stairs and tell Josh something about the crown molding. He'll love that. You can see the place in the floor where I hit my head and died," Sally said.

"Okay, I will," Henry told her before exiting the bathroom.

* * *

At the dining table, Lucas was listening to Josh with rapt attention. Their host was giving Lucas ideas to try for his next film to make his werewolves more realistic. Henry didn't go immediately to the table. He was going to investigate the floor just as Sally had told him to do.

"Are you sure?" Lucas asked Josh doubtfully in regards to yet another werewolf suggestion. "I don't want to take people out of the moment with cheap-looking effects. Indie horror films have cutthroat competition."

Henry snorted at the joke, and he realized that he was starting to get and enjoy Lucas's jokes. Well, whatever kept you sane. He walked closer to the stair landing, and he saw the dent that was still there.

Reaching out his hand as if to touch it, Henry was startled when Aidan stood right beside him. "Find anything interesting?"

"Sally Malik said I should look at the floor," Henry said, his eyes challenging Aidan for a reaction, any reaction.

The man stilled, a creepy stillness that was reserved only for cadavers most of the time. Then he made an affectation of swallowing. "Do you know Sally?"

"I don't. Is she dead?" he asked Aidan.

"Her fiancé killed her," Aidan whispered.

Materializing beside the purported vampire, Sally said, "I told him that. I encouraged him to see for himself."

Josh called out from the table in the other room. "What are you getting up to over there?"

"I was looking at the crown molding," Henry said loud enough for his voice to carry.

"It really is impressive," Josh said proudly before turning his attention back to Lucas who had started taking notes.

"Aidan, I told Henry about your fangy little secret," Sally said.

"Sally!" he hissed softly so his voice could not carry to the human in the other room. "If you weren't already a ghost…"

"I want to know what Henry is. He's got to be something. He won't tell me," Sally said. "Oh! Unless being a medical examiner makes you more sensitive to the dead and the undead. Is that it?"

"No," Henry said, shaking his head. "I have to accept that Sally is a ghost. There is no other rational explanation. Sherlock Holmes was right. 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"

"And what is your truth, Dr. Morgan?" Aidan asked him, allowing some of his vampire nature to show in his eyes.

"Why do you know so much about the Revolutionary War?" Henry countered. "You told me you were a war reenactor."

"I know because I was there," Aidan said, getting closer to Henry's personal space. "I also know that your blood tastes different than normal human blood. Why is that?"

"Aidan!" Josh chastised as he walked into the room. "It's time to eat. Food."

Quieter he hissed at the vampire, "Not our guests!"

Aidan backed up from Henry so the good doctor could walk to the table unmolested. The scrumptious meal was spread out beautifully. He paused and thought both Abe and Abigail would have separately enjoyed the presentation. Too bad Henry had already slipped up this evening by calling Abe his son.

Henry glanced to the notes Lucas had taken when discussing werewolves with Josh. Then he started putting together what he knew. Last night had been the full moon. When he came out of the river in the morning, it was after the moon had gone down. If people with lycanthropy really existed and if they did change with the full moon, that could be a real reason that Josh was in the bushes in the morning.

Dr. Morgan thought that he might have been more prepared if he were a werewolf, but then again he was often caught unprepared for his deaths. He wasn't one who could really throw stones.

Thinking of an idea, Henry asked both of them, "Do your werewolves wear clothes when they change, or do they do it naked?"

Lucas replied thoughtfully, "I've always liked the look of the ripping clothes to show the monster's fierce strength."

"Yes, but… Well, it's not practical," Josh said. "A real werewolf, any werewolf, would have to live in society, right? He or she can't just keep buying clothes all the time without a huge budget or wardrobe department."

"I see your point," Lucas said.

"That's right, and an indie movie can't afford to have a wardrobe department," Josh said, looking like he'd won a battle of logic.

Whispering in Henry's ear, Sally said, "He usually gets naked and locks himself away. You're lucky he was by river this morning to get you some scrubs."

"That's true," Aidan agreed softly about Sally's statement to Henry.

"What's that?" Lucas said, turning his attention to Aidan.

"I was just thinking about costumes and budgets," he said.

"So what's your story?" Lucas asked, giving him the movie director fingers as he looked at his face. "Do you want to be a medical examiner, or are you part of a reenactment troupe?"

"I could do both," Aidan pointed out pedantically. "People do have hobbies."

"Sure," Lucas agreed with a charm that Henry, for one, was not used to seeing. "You know what one of my hobbies is. What about you, Henry? What are your hobbies?"

"Don't you already know?" Josh asked him.

"This one is still a man of mystery," Lucas told him.

Sally, standing between Josh and Aidan, said, "I believe that."

Both men nodded, and Henry could feel the weight of the regard of the three of them on him. He was not going to get through this night without revealing his secret. He was resigned to that now, but he had to do it in a way that Lucas would not overhear. He still had to work with the man on a daily basis. He didn't know if he could withstand the barrage of questions that would no doubt follow once Lucas believed him.

"I… like weapons," Henry said. "I know several things about flintlock pistols. That is why Aidan and I had a conversation last night."

"Yeah, doc," Lucas said with a sigh. "Only you could find the history geek in a club full of bangin' hotties."

"We all let our freak flags fly in different ways," Henry said.

Then as if remembering something out of the blue, Henry said, "Oh! I brought your scrubs back, Josh. We had them cleaned at the hotel."

"Thank you, Henry," he replied politely.

Aidan made a groan suddenly and apologetically pushed his plate away. "I'm sorry, Josh. I don't think I will be able to eat this. My allergies are even worse than they were before."

"Maybe you need a doctor to look at you," Josh said with a special look to Henry.

Lucas jumped in, "The doc is used to working with the dead, but he is a doctor."

"He works with the dead. How perfect is that?" Sally snarked as she neared Lucas. "This one is kind of cute, don't you think?"

Josh gave her a dark look that Lucas intercepted. Covering quickly, he said, "I'm worried for Aidan. He's had allergies for a while."

"You might need a specialist, Aidan, but I can help," Henry said as he took his opportunity.

Henry thought it better to exchange information out of Lucas's earshot. If these beings were the monsters they claimed to be, they would have already tried to hurt them. Plus, any intentions they had seemed focused on him and not Lucas. Separating Lucas from them would give him a chance to flee if he needed it.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Aidan said politely as he pointed vaguely to the direction of his bedroom.

"Of course not," Henry said, folding his cloth napkin and standing up.

The two men walked out of the room, but not fast enough for Henry to miss the muttered remark from Lucas that whatever happened in Boston stayed in Boston.

* * *

Once they were out of the room away from the innocent human, Aidan Waite rounded on Henry Morgan.

"What's your story?"

He softly smiled. "It's a long one."

"Not as long as mine, I gather," Aidan said.

"But I'm still alive," Henry said.

"And how is that possible?" he asked.

"I don't know how," Henry admitted. "After I died the first time, I wasn't expecting to come back. But I am still alive. Not undead."

"Did you die last night?" Aidan asked guiltily.

Henry nodded, but did not speak.

"But why were you in the water? I remember talking to you. Then the bite. But then you were gone," Aidan said, trying to shake his own faulty memory of the previous night. "I don't think I put you there."

"You didn't," Henry said softly.

Josh noisily came toward Aidan's room, and Sally appeared in advance of him. Henry waited to give his explanation until the supernatural trio were all assembled.

"What is Lucas doing?" he asked.

"Eating dessert," Sally said. "So tell us your secret."

"I've been dying to hear it," Josh said, looking to his two friends for support of his joke. They both rewarded him with groans.

"I am immortal," Henry declared. "I don't know how or why. When I die, I come back in the nearest body of water. My first death was in water, and all deaths after that are a ghostly after-image, if you will."

"Oh," Josh and Sally chorused together.

"I'm sorry," Aidan said.

"Thank you for your condolences, but—"

"No, Henry. I think I killed you last night," Aidan said, letting the weight of that statement fill the room. "The fact that you're not a vampire or permanently dead now can only be attributed to your immortality. I swear it was an accident. You were just so…"

"Delicious?" Josh offered, and Sally nodded vigorously at that.

"Delicious," Aidan said with a sheepish nod.

"When you think about it, it's a perfect relationship," Sally mused. "Aidan gets as much blood as he wants, and his blood supply never dies. Ever."

"No!" Henry said, putting his hands up in the air. "I am not going to become a vampire's human juice box." To himself he muttered, "I've known Lucas too long."

"I wasn't suggesting it," Sally said.

"We were just trying to figure everything out," Josh finished.

"You mean like why you were in the park instead of the normal place you go to change for the full moon?" Aidan asked.

"Hey! This isn't about me," the werewolf deflected.

"Not right now, but it will be," Sally promised.

Henry held up his hand. "Are my colleague and I free to go?"

"Yes, but please try the dessert," Josh begged. "These two can't eat, so I rarely get to cook for anyone living."

"I'll give you my son Abe's information. You can trade recipes," Henry said.

"He really is your son?" Sally asked.

"Yes," Henry said with a sigh.

"I had a son and a wife," Aidan said.

"And a long life to fill with regret," Henry commiserated.

Aidan acknowledged it with one curt nod, and then he walked to his door. He pointed in the approximate direction to where Lucas was eating dessert alone.

"Let's go be human and socialize," Aidan said.

* * *

Lucas asked Henry if all was well after Aidan's "examination." While he did not use the fingers to make air quotes, his tone had enough innuendo that made it clear to the others he thought there was something going on with the doctor and the man he didn't know was a vampire. Henry said he had an iron deficiency and then closed the subject entirely.

Henry and Aidan did have much in common, but they chose not to remain in contact with each other for fear of having a repeat of the accidental death incident. Aidan told him there was a vampire mantra that you could eat with your friends but not on your friends. Henry didn't know if that was true, but he was happy to stay alive—or what amounted to his version of it.

The oddest thing that came out of Henry's trip to Boston was that Abe and Josh had become recipe buddies. Josh shared many kosher recipes that Abe prepared for Henry to eat.

"He's a real mensch," Abe said of his long-distance friend one evening after he had used another of his recipes.

"Most of the month," Henry acknowledged teasingly. "He did help me in my time of need."

"Exactly. A mensch!" Abe said. "Did you get an invitation from Lucas? He made another werewolf movie in the morgue, and he is doing an indie screening. I'm not sure werewolves are my thing. It's a little far-fetched, don't you think?"

"I'm immortal, Abraham. I've learned to believe many things that I didn't believe were true," Henry said.

Abe shrugged. "Eat up, Pop. There's more where that came from."


End file.
